‘Oh, the passage, my lord! Let it be the passage. For you and me the passage is very dangerous, yet hardly more than here, and the Lady Phroso has her only chance of escape through the passage.’
‘You think it very dangerous for us?’
‘Possibly one of us will come through,’ he said.
‘And at the other end?’
‘There may be a boat. If there is none, she must try (and we with her, if we are alive) to steal round to the town, and hide in one of the houses till a boat can be found,’
‘Mouraki would scour the island.’
‘Yes, but a clear hour or two would be enough if we could get her into a boat.’
‘But he’d send the gunboat after her.’
‘Yes; but, my lord, am I saying that escape is likely? It is possible only; and possibly the boat might evade pursuit.’